Colleen: An Ethical Monitoring Of Employees

Jerry Mason, senior vice president and general manager at Morton-Thiokol, and Morton-Thiokol were on the brink of negotiating the booster’ rocket contract renewal with NASA. Although, it is not an acceptable reason, we could see how engineers and others below the authority of Jerry could be afraid to state something contrary to what he stood by. When someone’s self-interest and pride gets in the way of engineering, it can neglect the welfare of the public, and cause them harm. This case study highlights many irresponsible, and ethical failures in a professional work environment. Jerry Mason failed to abide by the following impediments for responsible action; self-interest, ignorance, and group thinking.

An ethical audit is important to establish the company’s current weaknesses and strengths concerning how it conducts itself in an ethical manner. An ethics audit will involve evaluating the company’s standard of ethic, it ethic climate, and how well the company’s employees follow ethical standards. One of the first things to evaluate in an ethics audit is if a company has a written code of ethics and how comprehensive it is. Moreover, the written code of ethics should apply to everyone in the company from the top down with a clear zero tolerance policy in place for ethics violations. Included in a comprehensive ethics code should be a method for

An initial new hire and employee ethics training has to be develop and administered. Also on-going ethics refresher training for use throughout the employees career with Company Q will need to be incorporated in the program. Systems will be developed and put in place to monitor, audit, and report ethics violations. A time-line to re-evaluate these programs and their effectiveness towards meeting the companies social responsibility goals will be established. Based on the evaluation a revision or revamp of the program if necessary will be initiated. The ethics program needs to be reviewed and understood by all employees and expectation for compliance very clear. This can be accomplish by tying compliance in some form to employees and leadership individual performance goals. Shareholders all the way down to entry-level employees will benefit from the ethics program which will also put the company on track to being more socially responsible. Once a code of ethics is in place and training has been given, then Company Q can begin developing trust within the company and employees as well as the community. Continued education and training will enable the company to become more socially responsible.

APEX will conduct yearly audits to our Ethics program. This will determine if we are in compliance with our company’s ethics standards and will utilize the Six-Sigma model as a method of improving upon those standards. This type of model will allow APEX to spotlight areas that are outside of our goals. Auditing employee misconduct is performed by tracking our hotline calls by

Any employee who feels that he or she has been subjected to sexual harassment should immediately contact the Human Resources Department for investigation and corrective action. Protection from retaliation will be provided and confidentiality will be provided as much as reasonably possible. Any employee who witnesses someone engaging in what could be deemed as sexually harassing conduct is obligated to notify the Human Resources Department even if the victim says that they can handle it or that they can take care of it themselves. Sexual harassment is an illegal act and must be reported and investigated just like any other illegal activity.

Ethics helps one to understand the concepts of right and wrong, while also teaching us what it means to be moral. Factors including religion, beliefs, feelings, and our culture are the foundation of the decisions we make in life, but is not the sole voice of reason. In this scenario of What Would You Do, a hair dresser begins by asking her client about her boyfriend and if he is tall, dark and handsome. The client proceeds to respond but is interrupted once her white boyfriend walks into the shop. The hair dresser then bashes the interracial couple stating, “you are an embarrassment to the black family, you should be with a strong black man.” Throughout the video, several clients defend the couple and explain that love conquers all and if

1. Discuss an ethical dilemma that you have had to face in the workplace. Ethical dilemmas

Ethics are need in organizations like mine so people will not take advantage of other co-workers and the customers. People in these companies sometimes treat the worker unfairly and will not pay them for their worth. They work long hours and get no compensation. Some companies like ENRON cheat people and cause problems globally because of the different investors that have invested in the company. The individual loses their job, the organization suffers in

A code of ethics highlights the responsibility and accountability standards of each and every employee within the organization. These codes are also motivating factors that guide the employees’ behavior, set the standard regarding ethical conduct, and build an organizations trustworthiness within

Essentially, ethics programs are meant to affect how people think about and address ethical issues that arise on the job. Gretchen Winter, vice president of business practices at Baxter International, puts it this way: By providing employees with ethics standards, training, and resources to get advice, organizations seek to create a work environment where (1) it’s okay for employees to acknowledge that they have an ethical dilemma, and (2) resources are readily available to guide employees in working through such dilemmas before making decisions (Joseph, 2000).

Ethics are a major issue which is a reason why the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was implemented. Before the Act, firms focused on growth but not as much on professional values. Revenue was the driving factor in auditing firms, and auditors were required to find new clients, keep existing clients, and cross selling. There were also penalties for not obtaining these requirements which could lead to termination (Jones III & Norman 2006). Since the Act many organizations have now implemented a code of conduct (ethics) which sets standards of how an auditor is supposed to act or a place to go to seek advice on handling different situations. The code of conduct or ethics can be viewed as a way an organization wants one to act or behave (Canary & Jennings 2007). Since implementation ethics is being taught more in college classes, and the reason for this is because of the huge scandals that have occurred. One study showed that the key leadership roles in a company often have a MBA, so teaching ethics will reach those leaders, and possibly prevent future ethical dilemmas (Sulivan, D. 2010).

Ethics is defined as the area of study that deals with determining what is good and bad behavior. For a company to be unethical, it would take part in actions that are not acceptable for every company to take part in. An example of some unethical behaviors in companies include but are not limited to; damage to the environment, exploiting the workforce by paying low wages, taking part in child labor, or producing products which are harmful or dangerous. Netflix acted ethically when the company poached the two Fox executives.

Self expression is one of the countries founding principles as set forth in the Constitution of the United States. Amendment One of the Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." (The Constitution, December 1791) Our forefathers understood that this was a broad statement and open for interpretation. As such, they incorporated into the Constitution that each and every person has a right to "…Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

This memo serves as notice that we will soon initiate efforts to develop and implement an ethics program as well as the appropriate training and an effective way to monitor those plans. As you are aware, consumers and partners want to work with companies they can trust, and having a program that will build management skills and effectively structure business controls is a great way to become transparent and build that trust. Overall, an effective ethics and compliance

Code of ethics promotes the ethical culture in an internal audit profession. Principles and rules of conduct